Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania Part 18

At length it became a possession of Spain, and so strongly was it fortified by the Spanish that it was thought to be impregnable. During the War of the Spanish Succession, however, the combined forces of England and Holland laid siege to it, and after a stubborn resistance the garrison was forced to surrender. Forthwith the English took possession in the name of Queen Anne and, strengthening the fortifications, have held the fortress ever since.

Spain was greatly mortified by the loss of this stronghold which she deemed rightly belonged to her. Several times during the ensuing seventy-five years, single-handed, she laid siege to the citadel in the endeavor to win it back, but each time she signally failed.

A seemingly auspicious time arrived in 1779 when she secured the co-operation of France. For the succeeding four years a relentless siege was laid to the fortress by the combined land and naval forces of Spain and France. Both nations summoned to their aid their ablest generals and admirals, using every conceivable device and strategy to capture the fortress, but all in vain.

During the first years of this siege the supreme command of both land and naval forces rested with the Spanish, but, having met with failure after failure, they were ready at length to give way to the French, who promised to capture the stronghold by constructing a powerful fleet of battering-ships, enabling them to fight at close range, so that gun to gun and man to man should decide the contest.

The French engineer who prepared the armament cut down the huge bulwarks of the sides of ten of the Spanish battle-ships and proceeded to reconstruct them within and without. The reconstructed ships were much like the _Merrimac_, that did such destructive work in our Civil War, except that they were not armored with iron. Triple beams of heavy oak with layers of sand and cork between them were used for encasing these huge hulks. For protecting the crews heavy timbers covered with rope and hides were used.

On September 12, 1782, fifty line-of-battle ships flying flags, together with a fleet of smaller vessels, lined up before the town. This formidable fleet was supported on land by an army of forty thousand men reinforced with batteries of the heaviest ordnance stretched along the sh.o.r.e. To oppose these the English commander, General Eliott, had ninety-six pieces of artillery and seven thousand men. So confident was the enemy of success that the triple-armored battering-ships moved boldly up to within half-gunshot range.

At a signal the English opened fire, which was instantly answered by the floating batteries and the whole sh.o.r.e line; four hundred guns were then playing on the beleaguered town. Soon death and destruction were made evident on both sides. There seemed to be but one thing for the English to do to save themselves, and that was to set fire to the enemy's ships.

Accordingly, furnaces were placed beside the batteries in which heavy cannon b.a.l.l.s were made white-hot. The guns, shotted with these glowing b.a.l.l.s, were then turned on the ships. The enemy attempted to guard against the hot shot by continually pumping water into the layer of sand between the wooden sheathing of the ships, and for a time succeeded in extinguishing the fires.

It was not long though before the admiral's ship caught fire, and as night drew on, the flames, indicating the position of the Spanish line, furnished a mark for the English guns. At midnight ten of the besieging ships were on fire. Rockets were thrown up and distress signals hoisted to summon aid from their consorts.

The flames mounted higher and higher, illuminating sky, sea, and rock.

The shrieks of the wounded and dying filled the midnight air. When it was found that the ships could not be saved, all discipline was lost and a panic ensued. Hundreds perished miserably, while hundreds of others threw themselves into the sea. Seeing the terrible destruction wrought by firing hot b.a.l.l.s, General Eliott ordered his men to man the boats in order to save their foes from drowning and burning.

With the greatest heroism they scoured the sea, and, mounting the burning vessels, dragged from the decks men deserted by their own people. While performing these humanitarian acts several of the English perished by explosions. Three hundred and fifty-seven of the enemy were saved from a horrible death. The following morning disclosed a sea covered with wrecks. A few days more of feeble bombardment ensued; then a treaty of peace was signed.

From a strategic stand-point, the Rock of Gibraltar is easily Great Britain's most important stronghold, because it guards the trade route to her most important possession--British India. Practically all her commerce with her Indian colonies pa.s.ses through the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Ca.n.a.l. With either one in the possession of an enemy, British commerce would not only suffer heavy losses, but it might be destroyed altogether. So necessary is the command of the Strait of Gibraltar to Great Britain, that to lose the Rock might also mean the loss of British India.

At the present time Great Britain is continually adding to the defences by building new fortifications and replacing the older guns with the latest patterns.

In ancient times the name Calpe was applied to the rock of Gibraltar and Abyla to the eminence in Africa on the opposite side of the strait, and both of these eminences formed the renowned Pillars of Hercules. For centuries no ships navigating the Mediterranean dared sail beyond these pillars.

CHAPTER XX

THE BAKU OIL FIELDS

Crossing the Black Sea, we leave the steamer at Batum and take the train for Baku, the commercial centre of the greatest oil field in the world--a region where the supply of petroleum and natural gas seems almost inexhaustible. Immense subterranean oil reservoirs underlie this entire region and extend eastward under the Caspian Sea and beyond to the Balkan hills.

Not only do oil and gas exude from the ground, but, as in the California fields, they come up through the sea-bottom; the oil floats on the surface of the water and the gas, pure as that used in our cities, pa.s.ses off into the air. In several places gas which bubbles up through the sea-water may be ignited; then for a long distance the sea seems to be aflame. In many places on the land a fire for lighting or heating purposes is made by thrusting a pipe down into the ground and igniting the gas which rises in the tube.

The waters of the Caspian Sea along the Baku sh.o.r.e are usually fine for bathing, but if the wind blows inland for a while the oil floating on its surface acc.u.mulates, forming a black sc.u.m on the top, putting an end to the bathers' sport until an offsh.o.r.e wind sets in.

Ten miles from Baku, once upon a time, there was a temple over a cleft in the rocks from which gas arises. The gas was kept burning, tended by Pa.r.s.ee priests, for more than two thousand years and until the advent of the modern oil well. This flame was a special object of adoration by the fire-worshippers who were the followers of Zoroaster, and many went there to pay homage to it.

In this region one may travel for miles and miles without seeing a tree, shrub, or blade of gra.s.s. The landscape consists of a rolling surface of rocks and sand. It is barren, dry, and dest.i.tute of all objects of interest. Sometimes for six months or more not a drop of rain falls to lay the dust. If we go into the section where oil-wells are sunk, a slight relief to the view is afforded by the mounds of sand marking the sites of oil wells, derricks, the inky petroleum lakes, and the huge iron reservoirs. But all around is dry and dusty save where the oil has mingled with the earth; there the surroundings are not only unpleasant to sight and smell but ruinous to peace of mind as well.

For twenty-five centuries this region has been famous for its petroleum, and for upward of a thousand years the surrounding peoples have had recourse to these springs to obtain supplies of oil for medicinal and domestic purposes. Herodotus has given an interesting description of them. Even in the early part of the twelfth century petroleum was an important article of export from Baku. Crude petroleum was used to anoint camels for mange. In the first part of the eighteenth century Peter the Great annexed Baku to Russia. After his death it was ceded back to Persia; but in 1801 it was again annexed to Russia.

To-day Baku is one of the important commercial cities of the Russian Empire. Its shipping is immense and to further its commerce there are magnificent docks. The city is built on the sh.o.r.es of a large bay, sheltered from adverse winds by an island that acts as a breakwater. The water-front has an anchorage for thousands of vessels. One may walk along the strand for eight miles and find ships lined up in front of the city the entire distance.

The Caspian is filled with various kinds of fish, and while bathing one might reasonably have the impression that he was swimming in an aquarium. In fact, this place is an ideal one for an Izaak Walton. On the islands beyond the peninsula, projecting out from the Baku section, petroleum gas has flamed for centuries, lighting the heavens at night with a lurid glare that is visible far out at sea.

In Baku Bay, between two peninsulas, there was a spot, now commercialized into a producing oil well, where the gas came to the surface with sufficient force to upset small boats. Many of the oil wells are spouters for a long time after they are first bored, and when they cease to spout they can frequently be made to renew their activity by deeper boring.

Wells have been pumped for years without the level of the oil being lowered in the slightest. Some of the wells which have caught fire accidentally have burned for years, sending up their pillars of fire to a great height. In a few instances the richest wells have made the owners practically bankrupt by overwhelming the buildings on adjoining property with sand and petroleum, spreading ruin far and wide before the flow could be checked.

A majority of the great oil wells are about ten miles from Baku, and a dozen pipe-lines convey the petroleum from them to Black Town, a suburb of Baku, where it is stored and refined. From one well alone the escaping oil would have brought more than five million dollars had it been saved.

Seemingly the crust of the earth for hundreds of miles around acts like a huge gasometer pressing down on the pent-up gases with its weight.

Since the Caspian Sea is eighty feet below sea level, it is probable that the land bordering the sea has sunk since the gases and oil were formed. And this would, in part at least, account for the enormous pressure.

The spouting oil wells are called fountains. Some of them have yielded two million gallons each day for months, sending up jets three or four hundred feet high with a roar that could be heard several miles away.

Great difficulty was found at first in stopping the flow when necessary by capping or gagging the wells, but after a time a sliding valve-cap was invented, capable of checking the flow of the most violent well. In order to prevent the enormous pressure from bursting the pipe and tearing up the ground, as soon as the pipe has been sunk part way the earth is excavated around it and the excavation is filled with cement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Landing-place for commerce on the Caspian Sea]

It is said that one of these gushers threw up in a day more oil than is produced by all the wells in the United States. One well spouted oil for months before it could be gagged, and in the meantime flooded the surrounding country. Millions of gallons were burned to get rid of it and millions more were diverted into the Caspian Sea. Two wells are reported to have thrown up in less than a month thirty million gallons each.

At first sand is thrown out with the oil, and frequently it is ejected with such force that a plate of iron three inches thick struck by the stream is worn through in less than a day by this liquid sand blast.

When the wells cease spouting and it is not deemed advisable to bore deeper, pumping is employed. Generally the oil coming from the wells is conducted into large, carefully tamped excavations in the ground forming ponds or lakes. In these huge reservoirs the sand and heavier parts soon sink, making the bottom impervious. After the settling the petroleum is either pumped into large iron tanks or sent directly to the refinery by pipe-lines.

Since petroleum is vastly cheaper than coal, the steamers plying on the Caspian Sea and the locomotives of many of the Russian railroads use oil for fuel. At one time so great was the acc.u.mulation of petroleum that it sold at the wells for a few cents a ton. A fleet of tank-steamers conveys the oil products to the interior of Russia by the Caspian Sea and Volga River route.

The crude petroleum of Baku yields a lower percentage of kerosene than the American wells, but it contains more lubricating oil. Millions of gallons of lubricating oil are shipped from Baku each year to all parts of Europe. On the opposite side of the Caspian there are great cliffs of mineral wax such as is obtained from petroleum and used extensively in the manufacture of paraffin candles.

More than two hundred different products are made from petroleum, among the chief of which are kerosene, lubricating oil, benzine, gasoline, vaseline, and paraffin.

CHAPTER XXI

THE SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS

Many of the great treasure fields of the world have been discovered by chance rather than careful search.

The diamonds of the Deccan, India, were trodden under foot for ages before they were recognized as diamonds. In Brazil the gold placer miners threw away the gla.s.sy pebbles as worthless and the black slaves used them as counters in their card games. A visitor who was acquainted with the diamond fields of India happened one day to notice the shining stones which two men were using in a card game at a public-house. The brilliancy of the pebbles piqued his curiosity. Having secured some, he tested them and found them to be diamonds of the first water. Yet so great was the prejudice against the Brazilian diamonds at first that for years many were secretly shipped to India and thence sent to the diamond market as Indian diamonds.

A trivial circ.u.mstance often leads to a marvellous change in the conditions of men, communities, and nations. The playful act of a Boer lad picking up a shining pebble on the banks of the Orange River served as a beacon to lure persons to search for the most precious and hardest of gems, the diamond, and thereby transformed South Africa.

It was the beginning of an industry that has already added more than four hundred million dollars' worth of wealth to the world and which now yields annually twenty million dollars' worth of diamonds. The history of the South African diamond mines is a fascinating story from start to finish.

A Boer farmer named Jacobs had made his home on the banks of the Orange River not far from Hopetown. Here, living in a squalid hovel, he eked out a precarious existence by hunting and grazing. His chief income was from the flocks of sheep and goats that grazed on the scanty herbage of the veld. Black servants were the shepherds, and the children, having no work to employ their time, were free to roam over karoo, and veld, and along the river.

What children are not attracted by pebbly streams? Wading in the water and skating flat stones on its surface was a joyous pastime for them.

The banks of the river were strewn with stones of various colors and sizes such as would naturally attract the eyes of children.

There were rich red garnets, variegated jaspers, chalcedonies and agates of many hues mingled with rock-crystals. The children would fill their pockets with these colored pebbles and carry them home to use in play.